Re: [gdm-list] BORDER element in the greeter.dtd

["finchair yahoo com" <finchair yahoo com>]

Brian,
No bother at all.  I am going to abbreviate the message so that I can respond to each of the items you listed.  I must apologize for not being clearer in my first email.  Hopefully I'll be more succinct in this one. :-)  If you would like, I can provide more detail on my professional background off the list.

>Thanks so much for updating the gdmgreeter DTD file.  It is nice that the
>DTD file finally has been given some love.  Do the existing themes now
>conform to this DTD without any warnings or errors?

Your welcome, updating the file allowed me to get a better understanding of the xml behind the themed greeter.  I did run the existing themes through the xmllint with the new dtd file.  The Happygnome-list
 has one error in it which is easily fixed.  All of the other themes checked out OK.  I'll update the Happygnome-list theme and upload the corrected xml file to bugzilla.

>I would love for someone to be more involved in this area of the code.
>I'm a bit unsure, though, about what you are wanting to maintain.  Are
>you wanting to maintain just the existing themes, or also related
>gdmgreeter maintenance and enhancements.  For example, do you plan on
>enhancing the theme to have new keys/elements and then updating the
>gdmgreeter source code to have those new enhancements?

My intention was to maintain the greeter.dtd file and any changes, updates or creation of the themes.  Although I can read code and understand what the majority of it is doing, I am not capable of maintaining the greeter application itself.  

>1) The DTD probably should contain more comments explaining how to
    >actually define a theme, and the existing docs in docs/C/gdm.xml
    >are poor.  Although the docs do list out what the different tags
    >and elements means, there are not really many examples nor an
    >overview helping people know how to go about putting together a
    >theme.

This is definitely an area I can help with.  Interestingly enough, I had already planned on writing a how too for the GDM Themes but was unsure of where it would best be posted.  Certainly examples in the dtd and the docs would be the best place for it.  I'll have to go over the writing standards for the GNOME docs.    I am also writing a GDM-Functional reference for the Bluefish editor which should provide assistance to
 users who use that editor.  I'm sure that I could port that functional reference over to other editors if needed.

>2) The existing themes could use some design love.  As I've added new
    >features to the greeter.xml I add them as examples to the default
    >themes.  This means that the default themes have two methods for
    >selecting language/session (the combobox and the dialog).  Might
>be better if different themes showed off different features?

The existing themes were among the first resources I used to figure out how the xml was
 structured.  I agree that the default themes can and should be used as examples of how the gdm xml is used, and I would even recommend that the comments in the default themes be expand to provide an explanation of how to implement theme features.

    >Also I think the overall design of the existing default themes could
    >be improved and made to look nicer, more modern, etc.

>3) Add new themes.  GDM could use some cooler more modern theming.

This is certainly something I could sink my teeth into and would consider it a challenge to come up with updates to the existing themes and add a few new themes for a variety of looks (personal, professional, technical,
 etc..).

>If you want to dig into the code more, then greeter-parser.c is the
>file which parses the theme XML file.  There are already many bug reports
>at bugzilla.gnome.org where people would like to see new capabilities
>that could be added to the XML file and the parser.  And there is the
>obvious work of making such new configuration options actually change
>gdmgreeter's behavior.
>----snip for
 brevity---<
>----un-snip end of brevity---<
>I believe there are bugs in bugzilla for all these issues (and more), but
>these I think are the most important things to think about.
>
>I'm not sure how far you want to dig into things, but hopefully this
>gives you some ideas of how you could involve yourself, and perhaps
>give others ideas of how to participate in this area of the
 code.

Unfortunately, writing or maintaining the code at this point is beyond my capabilities.  I would be more that happy to work with anyone developing the code to provide a sounding board, ideas, or functional recommendations, but couldn't actually put together any working code. (sorry)

>As I said, I'd be curious to know more specifically what you are interested
>in doing.  I'd recommend that if you put together some code that makes GDM
>work better, submit it as an enhancement request to bugzilla.gnome.org in
>the "gdm" category, and attach the patch.  You can also send patches to
>the gdm-list gnome org if that is easier for you.  But it's good to track
>changes in bugzilla.

To wrap up.  I would like to maintain the greeter.dtd file and the maintenance, update and addition of existing and new themes.  Updating the online documentation and providing instructional comments in the dtd file and the theme xml files is definitely an area I would be happy to assist with. While I can not help write or maintain the code, I would be able to provide assistance with whatever I could to the maintainer.

Thanks,
Dave

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